The Eklund Group, LLC works with middle market business owners who are contemplating a sale or seeking merger or acquisition opportunities. We assist owners in all areas of stock or asset sales, mergers, divestitures or acquisitions.

Services

Business Development

Business Development – The Eklund Group developed this service to give the business owner the opportunity to maximize the value of their business in preparation for an exit. The time window is usually between 3 and 5 years to address valuation issues both operational and size gaps. We start with a current valuation and a review of current operations. The second step is a proforma valuation demonstrating how the company should look in order to meet the exit goals of the owner. From there we build a plan to fill the gaps between where the business is today and where it should be to meet the exit goals. This plan will include operational changes, organic growth and growth through acquisitions. The plan can include:

Ceasing services and products that offer low profits or losses

Eliminating the personal goodwill of the ownership and transition it to the company

Adding new products and services through strategic partnerships and joint ventures

Making strategic acquisitions

The plan may include raising the necessary capital through selling off of assets or lines business, debt or equity

Staffing changes

Minimizing concentration issues with customers and employees

Finding hidden assets and values

Changes to capital structure and accounting methods

We will monitor the progress with periodic valuation updates and the valuation dashboard. This tool allows you to run various scenarios when faced with major decisions such as acquiring a small add on company, major equipment purchase or expansion. Most business owners do a very good job watching “the numbers”, however can mean different things to different owners. This can be monitoring revenues and profitability, hours billed or parts built but only a few owners truly understand how all these factors affect the valuation of their most valuable asset, their business.

Buy Side Brokerage

The Eklund Group’s Wall Street to Main Street Directed Search is a program that focuses on the specific needs of the individual buyers’ transition from an employee to being an entrepreneur. The concept was triggered when 3 sophisticated buyers came in within 10 days of each other and asked what it would cost to work just for them. Over the past 7 years more than 20 buyers have engaged the Eklund Group to locate a business specifically for them. The success rate has been 85%. When the service was in its infancy it took between a year and 18 months to close. Currently the time line is 9 to 12 months. Key elements:

This is not the traditional buy side service offered by very broker out there. The companies that are targeted are not currently on the market.

Every search generates anywhere from 5 to 10 solid leads that just do not fit the buyer, could be size, location and as simple as just doesn’t feel right.

There are a large number of business owners out there unwilling to go through the normal process

They do not want their business listed on the internet, with all the precautions take to remain confidential it is very easy for a competitor to figure it out

They have been through the listing cycle and turned off with zero results and days on end of wasted time talking to tire kickers or good buyers but listing broker set too high a expectation

Sellers agree to work with us because they know Eklund Group buyers have been thoroughly vetted and made a significant investment. Leaves no room to question how serious they are.

The supply of qualified buyers is much greater than the supply of good businesses to purchase

This approach puts the buyer in the driver’s seat, cuts the search time in half and saves a substantial amount of the capital available. The longer the search goes the less the buyer has to invest. Many ask why very few if any other brokers take a similar approach if it works so well. Simple, while we make less per transaction closed and put in 2 to 3 times the hours we close virtually every transaction. By the time you factor in the number of sell side deals that brokers do not close we make just as much overall and we were looking for a way to stabilize revenues. This works every time and everyone involved wins.

Management

Kirk Eklund

Owner, Merger & Acquistion Intermediary

Kirk Eklund is a seasoned operations executive who has participated in numerous start-ups, acquisitions and turnaround situations. He has served operations executive for corporations of all sizes having led start-up, re-engineering and structuring projects globally. He served as the operations executive for a professional services firm and a high technology telecommunications company taking both from start-up to product and service delivery. Prior to launching The Eklund Group he held key management positions at Samsung Telecommunications, Nokia Mobile Phones, Twinstar Semiconductor and Texas Instruments. In these positions he was responsible for large ERP, Infrastructure and MIS and Manufacturing Operations Roll-outs and Implementations.

In 2002 Kirk formed his own firm and entered into the world of becoming an entrepreneur. He originally became an affiliate in a large group of Business Brokers where he learned the ropes of selling main street businesses. During the first few years he brokered several small business transactions but also raised start-up capital for some start-ups, recapitalized several through debt and equity raises and provided general operational and financial consulting to his clients.

In 2006 3 different buyers came asked a question that changed the focus of the Eklund group that it maintains today. The question was “What would you charge me to find a business for me to buy?”, they all three expressed the same frustrations the process of chasing down listed businesses. At that point the buy side practice launched and has been a foundation of the business since. The original program was what he calls “Wall Street to Main Street” which focuses on helping corporate executives locate, purchase and transition into their own small business.
In 2014 Kirk completed the requirements to obtain credentials in Business Valuation and Equipment Appraisals. The program has grown into a B2B Business Development program that helps business owners understand the value of their business and what would be required to fill any gaps between the current valuation and a value meeting the owners exit requirements. The gaps can be filled using numerous approaches including small add on businesses being purchased, new product and services and new sales channels.

Kirk can bring a wealth of experience and accredited buyers, sellers and investors to any transaction. Kirk Eklund graduated from Texas A&M Commerce with a Bachelor’s of Science.

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Date: July 2014

Client: Eugenio Garcia

Category: Acquisitions

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